Island



(No Model.) T. W, POSTER.

vlszIAlqU-MGTURB 0F PLATED JEWELRY.

BT02621357s Patented Aug;'1f5","1"88f2";

WITNEEEE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THEODORE W. FOSTER, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

MANUFACTURE OF PLATED JEWELRY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 262,657, dated August 15, 1882.

Application tiled May 19, 1882.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, THEODORE W. FOSTER, of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, have invented an Improvement in the Manufacture of Plated Jewelry, of which the following` is a specification.

My invention relates to the manufacture of an imitation in rolled plate of shell-gold jewelry, in which the rim or bezel is usually soldered to a tlat plate of gold, that forms the front or face ofthe work, and upon which the processes of engraving and ornamentation are carried out without forming indentations or other distigurations upon the under side of said plate, thus leaving an even clean nish on this side; and it consists in the improved method of constructing the front plate and applying the same to the rim or bezel, whereby the front plate may be left thick for the purpose of engraving, andthe edge of the base metal of the front plate may be covered and protected by the extension ot' the gold of thel front plate at a rounded corner.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of a bar pin embodying my improvement. Fig. 2 represents a plan view of the back side of the gold-plated front plate. Fig. 3 is a section taken in the line a: m ot' Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is an edge elevation of the pin wi.l1 a portion of one end broken away. Fig. 5 represents a partial section of the front plate enlarged. Fig. 6 represents a partial section ofthe pin enlarged, showing the burnished rounded corner.

In carrying out my invention I first take rolled plated stock ot' sufficient thickness for the purpose of engraving and ornamentation, as in shell-gold jewelry, and cutout therefrom a plate of similar form and of slightly greater size than the inner space ot' the rim or bezel B, and I then strike the edge thinner from the base-metal side ofthe plate, and then trim off the surplus thinned stock, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, in which C represents the gold, and D the base metal of the plate. The gold and base metal will thus be thinned in a uniform ratio to about the thickness of ordinary plated stock, while the body of the plate for an area equal to the space within the rim B will be (No model.)

left of its original strength and thickness for the purpose of engraving and ornamentation. The base metal D of the plate A may be made thick enough to support the plate when in the article of jewelry without the auxiliary support of a backing-plate. The en graver can therefore ornament the plate as desired prior to its attachment to the rim or bezel B, it' preferred. After soldering the plate A, so prepared, to the edge of the rim or bezel I burnish the corner a. of the gold front C ot'v the plate over the edge of the base metal D, so as to connect with the gold plate l) of the rim B and hide the base-metal edge from view, as

shown in the enlarged section, Fig. 6. The

form of the thinned edge and corner a prior thin laterally-extended edges has heretofore been employed in the manufacture ofjewelry; but such extension has been produced by thinning the whole plate made originally to tit the interior space ot' the rim, and not by directly thinning the edge of a plate made larger than the interior space ot' the rim, as in my invention, in which process the body of the plate is not made thinner.

I claim as my invention- The improved lnethod of manufacturing articles of jewelry from plated stock which consists in, first, cutting out a front plate slightly larger than the interior space ot' the rim or bezel; second, in striking the stock of the front plate thinner at its edges from an area corresponding to the interior space of the rim or bezel and trimming o' the surplus thinned stock; third, in soldering the plate with thinned edges to the rim or bezel; and,fourth, in burnishing the thinned edge to a rounded corner, whereby the gold at the front of the plate is made to extend over and cover the thinned edge of the base metal and conceal it from view, substantially as described.

THEODORE W. FOSTER.

Witnesses:

SOCRATES SGHOLFIELD, HARMON S. BABCOCK. 

